PANAJI
Goa’s paddy farming during the kharif season, which began earlier this week, is increasingly adopting mechanisation of operations to beat farm labour availability issues and high costs, but the use of drones, especially for spraying fertiliser, pesticides and weedicides, is yet to catch the imagination of farmers here.
Barring Chinchinim and a handful of other pockets in Salcete where ‘Goencho Xetkar’, a private service provider, operates, the use of drones for spraying fertilisers and pesticides in the rest of the State has been negligible, according to officials of the Agriculture Department.
Paddy farming picked up significantly through a community effort mentored by the local communidade and the Velim AAP MLA Cruz Silva, and it is one area where farmers have used drones extensively to spray fertilisers, pesticides and weedicides.
Official records show that Goa’s ‘Paddy Man’ Fr George Quadros, sdb, is the only licensee in the State to use drones for agricultural use. He is based at the Don Bosco complex at Fatorda but provides services including mechanised transplanting and harvesting across the State.
Quadros and his associates also operate drones for farming purposes under the banner of ‘Goencho Xetkar’ and are the drone farming service providers available in Goa.
Spraying of fertiliser and pesticides, and more particularly weedicides, is targeted at affected areas in the field when done with the help of drones, says Chinchinim panchayat member Gerson Gomes.
“When it is done manually, larger quantities of fertilisers and pesticides are inadvertently consumed. Also, the operations which can be completed using drones in a single day will take a minimum of a week if done manually,” Gomes told *The Goan*.
Officials of the Agriculture Department, meanwhile, cite multiple reasons why Goan farmers are yet to take to the use of drones for fertiliser and pesticide application in their fields.
Fragmented land holdings, difficult topography and an inadequate number of service providers, the officials said, are seemingly the reasons why drone farming is yet to pick up pace here.
The department’s officials said they are also struggling to enlist women farmers and farming clusters of the State to hard sell to them the ‘Drone Didi Yojana’ scheme under which the Central government subsidises up to 80 per cent of the cost of drone equipment.
The scheme aims to promote women to form self-help groups and become service providers themselves, catering to farmers’ fertiliser and pesticide spraying needs by using drones.
Up to Rs 8 lakh (80% of cost) is paid upfront, but only women farmers who are organised as SHGs are eligible for it.
